Barracks Brunch at House, Dempsey Hill – Singapore

Our ongoing quest to find the perfect brunch/breakfast/weekend treat location continues this week with House… or is it Barracks. I’m so confused…

Located with all the other “i wanna be hip and cool like in other metropolitan cities” restaurants and “boutiques” (Dempsey Hill)… well I don’t even know what to write here. The building is House but I think the brunch is called Barracks despite not being in Barracks… whatever it is go to block 8D and look for a large amount of signs for a nightclub (not the restaurant oddly enough) and head down some stairs. Or if you’ve had the misfortune of wasting wads of cash (only to leave hungry) at Tippling Club – it’s next door to that place 😉

I’m going to call it House from here on out even though I think that’s the name of the center, but it’s shorter to type and it’s the name on the building 😀

House is a modern, loft-style restaurant on the Hill. The menus are printed on fake newspapers, well designed event posters line the wall (really good posters I must say), there’s mismatched tables and chairs… basically hip restaurant 101. Don’t let my cynical nature throw you off…it’s good and works really well here, but it’s the same as any other 30 dollar for a wagyu burger place in Singapore.

Service was a bit iffy at first (we came right when it opened) but then pretty decent throughout the meal, much better than PS Cafe. We had a group of 6 so covered a lot of the menu.

I’m a burger junky. I think burgers can be a great judge for just how full of it a chef is. Yes there are ways to dress up a burger…then there’s also ridiculousness on an amplified scale. Sorry, they don’t serve burgers here… only “sliders” (two tiny burgers). I asked the server for the best or most ordered and she recommended I get the Cheddar Cheese and Bacon Sliders. Also I’d heard so much about the fries here I went ahead and up-sized (don’t they give you plenty normally). Burger Slider was OK… no where near the flavor and finesse of PS Cafe. Nothing special at all. The fries were fair enough in small portions but the truffle sauce on the shoe strings gets old and we need a different dipping sauce for the sweet potato fries (almond butter as served in my favorite Santa Fe restaurant Cowgirl Cafe would be a good start 😉 )

The table decided to split a couple “Skinny Pizzas” for everyone to enjoy. We went with the Chorizo Almond (really enjoyed the almonds and chorizo working together) and another one that wasn’t very memorable as looking at the menu I can’t recall what it was…OK, I was reminded it was the Salami and Pesto. Even though one didn’t stay in my memory, they were good as appetizers.

Our friend Monica ordered the Bay Prawn Capellini. It’s the restaurant’s “House Proud Dish” (no pun intended there I hope). She said it was good, but was so full from her coffees and pizza that she didn’t eat much of it. Which provided us a good insight to the running of the restaurant floor – a floor manager came over to make sure everything was OK with the dish since it looked untouched… a very refreshing touch of service.

Joanna and our friend Joe went a bit more traditional than the rest of us and ordered actual breakfast foods. Joanna ordered the Barracks Freeform Eggs (fried – not perfect but better than Epicurious). Joe went with the Eggs Benedict (good but not great says Joe).

All in all it was a good meal. It wasn’t great, but I imagine I’ll return some time in the future… most likely when entertaining out of town guests. Service was on top of their game enough throughout the meal so we were really able to relax and enjoy conversation and hanging out. We ordered desserts and coffees and took the brunch on into early afternoon – something that never happens in a stuffy environment.

So yes the design, layout, and function of the place isn’t as imaginative as they’d like to think (or maybe they were the first in Singapore, what do I know?), the prices are a bit high for what’s being offered, and the naming is confusing (look up Barracks online and it tells you a different spot in Dempsey not associated with House – which it has listed as a spa??? ) but all of that aside you can have a nice brunch or breakfast here. I’d recommend it at least once and as a good alternative to the Moet brunches if your out of town guests are a bit more frugal.